Photo Album
by Kitsune no Tora
Summary: Max is late meeting him, and in his search for his childhood friend, Ray find something very interesting in Max's room... something he had hoped never existed. --Entry into Rune Haven's contest for March.--


Disclaimer: I do not own Rune Factory 2 or any of the characters presented in this work of fanfiction.

**A/N:** This is my poor, last minute attempt at coming up with something for Rune Haven's contest for this month, the theme of which this time is "Embarrassment." I literally thought this up the morning of March 30th, started writing it that evening, and finished it JUST NOW, just in time for the deadline. XD; I probably would have done something earlier, but I had a bunch of huge exams the past few weeks and all my time was consumed by studying and playing Soul Silver. XD iFail. Well, enjoy~ I apologize in advance if there's any errors; I didn't exactly have much time to edit… I'll fix it later.

_**Photo Album**_

.~.~.~.~.

"Max, are you in here?" Ray called, opening the door to Max's bedroom and poking his head in. The blond had asked him to meet him after he got off work, but now he was nowhere to be found. Ray had checked Cherry Blossom Square, the de Sainte-Coquille Park, the pier, Julia's bath house, _everywhere_ he could think of that Max would be, and he still had not found him.

He had already checked Max's room, of course, but he had come back hoping that he had somehow missed his friend and would find him there—and if not, then he would just wait there until he did. Ray sighed, dropping himself onto the edge of the bed. Just where could he have disappeared to, anyway? There weren't a whole lot of places for him to escape unnoticed in Alvarna—not that Max ever went anywhere unnoticed anyway—but there just wasn't _anywhere_ for him to hide away, so where could he possibly have gone?

Since he couldn't find him, there really wasn't any point in running around town for the rest of the evening, so he would just wait there for him. It was his bedroom after all; he would have to show up eventually. So he waited. And waited. And waited some more. Max still didn't show up.

Ray sighed exasperatedly, standing up and stretching his limbs. Maybe he should go and ask his sister if she knew where Max was. She always seemed to have an uncanny ability to know where everyone was at any given time…

He was about to leave when something on the desk caught his eye. Upon closer inspection, he found it to be a photo album, leather-bound and open, the pages fluttering in the strong breeze coming in from the open window across the room—the movement being the reason it caught his attention in the first place. He smiled fondly, flipping through the pages as he caught sight of pictures of when he and Max were little. One depicted the two of them running around in the Square, another below it of them playing a game with a young Barrett, and another with Max and Rosalind smiling brightly into the camera—Max's smile was proud and boasting like always, while Rosalind's was much more reserved and delicate.

Feeling nostalgia well up in his chest, he continued flipping through the album, letting the memories filter through his mind, until he found one that broke him out of the moment with a sharp shot of abject horror.

Slipped into a page near the back of the book was a picture he never knew even existed, and had hoped never had in the first place. It was a picture of him, when he was about five years old, standing pigeon-toed near the front desk of the Clinic and looking mournfully at the camera, biting his nails. This fact wasn't what upset Ray, of course—the scene would have been cute, if it wasn't for one thing.

He was wearing a dress. A terribly pink, frilly, _lace-trimmed_ dress. He even had white stockings and little pink shoes adorning his tiny feet and a bow in his hair.

He knew that his mother had delighted in his feminine features when he was little and had dressed him up in all manner of feminine attire when he was too little to know better, but he had no idea Max, of all people, owned a _picture_ of it. And it filled him with a feeling of dread.

He was just about to snatch the picture from the album (delightfully entertaining the idea of burning it later as he did so) when the door slammed open, making him jump in surprise. He hurriedly spun around to find Max standing in the doorway, staring at him quizzically with a paper-wrapped package in his hand.

"Ray? What are you doing here?"

"Uh…" he fumbled for words, still distracted by the embarrassing picture sitting innocently in the album behind him. "Y-You told me you wanted to m-meet with me after I got off of work. I've been looking all over for you, where have you been?" he said quickly, trying his best to step backwards in a way that wouldn't be noticed by the blonde, toward the album.

"…I did…?" Max said thoughtfully, staring off into space as he tried to remember. Ray's frown rapidly turned into a scowl; too distracted by the need to take the picture and put it somewhere where it would never be found again. He clasped his hands behind his back, trying to sneak his hand back and take the photo without him seeing—he had to get it back before Max focused his attention back on him.

"Yes. You did, this morning. How could you forget?" Max was still silent for a minute more before leveling his gaze with Ray, looking sheepish and apologetic, and Ray froze, hand just brushing the sharp edge of the waxy paper. So close!

"I apologize, dear Ray, but I must have gotten distracted. I had a very important package arrive, you see, but the mail carrier had a bit of trouble on the way… what are you doing?"

"N-Nothing!" Ray said, snatching his hand back to rest behind his back with the other, bemoaning the guilty squeak the response carried. Yeah, that wasn't obvious.

Max's curious expression slid quickly into a sly, knowing smirk, and he sauntered over to where Ray stood, attempting to peek around him. "Really? You seem to be hiding something. What could it possibly be—ah." He chuckled, and Ray's cheeks dusted bright pink as Max found the album sitting opened to the offending photograph he had previously been trying to snatch. "I see you found it."

"Give it to me," Ray demanded, holding his hand out determinedly. He was going to get that picture, one way or another.

Max's grin grew bigger, his blue eyes taunting him. "No. You see, I quite adore that photograph; you really do pull off the dress well. I couldn't imagine parting with it." Ray blushed darker, which made Max laugh, which in turn made Ray blush even darker in irritation and embarrassment.

"I don't want you to have it. Give it to me," Ray repeated, willing his blush to go down and shaking his head. He was not going to be deterred.

Max hummed thoughtfully for a moment, for a second letting Ray believe he was considering it, but of course, it wouldn't be true. "How about a trade, then?"

"A trade?" Ray asked, raising an eyebrow. "What kind of trade?"

"A simple one, really. You let me keep the photograph, and I'll give you this." Max smiled brightly, holding out the paper-wrapped package he had arrived with, previously forgotten. "I had originally intended it for a different occasion, but it will do, it is for you. I'll have you know it took me a long time to find someone willing to make it to my specifications…" he rambled on about how much trouble he had gone through to get it—Ray tuned him out in favor of staring at the package, wondering what it could be.

"What is it?" he asked once Max had paused in his monologue, which caused the blond to brighten up so quickly it almost hurt his eyes.

"Why, you'll just have to open it to see, won't you?" He handed the package over to Ray, who stared at it curiously for a moment before deciding he might as well open it and see what it was. He could always refuse the… trade…

His jaw dropped as he looked in horror as the present unfolded in his hands. He couldn't believe it. It was an exact replica of the dress in the photo—although much larger, big enough to fit him now. In fact, it nearly looked _tailored_ to fit him.

"Ah, amazed, aren't we? Aren't you glad? I know you'll look just dashing in it, you looked so adorable in it when you were little-"

Ray threw the dress at him, cheeks burning red enough to rival the color of one of Kyle's tomatoes. Max just laughed.

"No, I refuse!"

"Aww, but I went through so much trouble to get it. Won't you please wear it? You'd look quite beautiful, you know," he said lightly, eyes sparkling with mirth. He was enjoying this, Ray could tell.

"You're out of your mind."

"Aren't we all?" Max laughed, "Please? Do it for me?"

"No."

Hours later, Ray would be in the dress, cursing his very existence. Why, oh why, did he have to be born 'girly'? And why did Max have to be so damn _persuasive_? It just wasn't fair. His life just wasn't _fair_.

But, although he would never admit it out loud, he did look kind of nice... and then he quickly slapped himself mentally for even thinking such a thing. Max was corrupting him.

.~.~.~.~.

**A/N:** Aha! I have successfully made Ray crossdress. I had to do it eventually; he's just too adorable to NOT want to put in girly frilly dresses and tie his hair up in cute bows. No one can resist. 8D (Is it just me, or does the image of Ray in a frilly pink dress scream LOVELY JAILBAIT?)

But gah, I kind of hate it. Sorry guys, I guess this is what I get for trying to force something out last minute. XD;; The ending fails the most, I just couldn't figure out what I wanted to _do_, and thus had no ending. It just stopped because I got tired of writing it and I only had an hour left before the deadline. Bawwwww.

Or maybe I'm just in my initial 'everything I write sucks' mood that happens whenever I write something initially, and I'll look on this later and be all 'that was actually pretty damn good'. Who knows?

Thanks for reading this either way, though! Voting starts at midnight tonight, March 31st, Eastern Standard Time (-5 GMT), and ends on April 7th, at the same time of day. So if you're interested in reading the rest of the entries in this month's contest and voting, please do so! There's helpful links to the forum and contest in my profile, which is only one click away~


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